141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

275976
Research findings of the effects of an HIV/AIDS awareness program in owerri, Nigeria: Lessons garnered as an external evaluator

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Adaeze Egole-Oziri, PhD , Department of Public Health Technology, Federal University of Technology, owerri, Nigeria
Nnamdi Oziri, PhD , School of Public Health Technology, School of Health Tech., Federal Unversity Of Technology Owerri, Nigeria, Owerri, Nigeria
HIV/AIDS is a global crisis, but Sub-Saharan Africa region has been more severely affected by AIDS than any other part of the world. The overall rate of infection among adults in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nations, is 7.5%-8.5%, compared with 1.1% worldwide. In Nigeria, it is estimated that 3.1 percent of adults between ages 15-49 are living with HIV/AIDS. In 2010, we the researchers from the University of Cincinnati conducted this study in two major Higher institutions of Owerri Imo State Nigeria to evaluation the effects of an HIV/AIDS awareness program on college students in the State.

The primary purpose of the study was to demonstrate that properly planned and carefully executed awareness training programs could, possibly, provide positive effects on the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of young college students regarding HIV/AIDS. A pre- post-intervention research was designed for the study, incorporating the Domain-Reference Testing (DRT) methodology. Knowledge, attitude, and perceived behavior of participants were measured before the intervention, and the same variables were measured after the completion of the training intervention.

In this presentation, the findings of the evaluation will be shared, and more importantly, the inherent pitfall for a transcontinental external evaluator will be presented. Among the principal findings is the fact that although the data generated from the study suggested various percentage changes in the attitude, knowledge and perceived behaviors of the participants from per-intervention to post-intervention, the training program contributed very minimally to those changes. Handouts will be distributed to participants of the section.

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control
Public health or related education
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate adequate knowledge of HIV/AIDS spread, identify and evaluate healthy behavior.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, HIV Risk Behavior

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to be an author in this subject because I have been planning and coordinating different areas of health care, primary, secondary and tertiary. I am also the lead researcher in this study. I have been involved in health promotion and HIV/AIDS awareness programs in most African nations. Lastly, my educational pursuit in different ares of health, BS Community Health Services, MS Health Planning and Administration and PhD. Public Health says it all.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.